Halloween Themed Layout (newbie here)

I'm new to the Trainboard (waves to everybody). I've got a few projects I'm going to be starting up. The 3' x 5' underbed layout (Colfax to Trukee in the snow) and the 6' bookcase yard (Oakland intermodal to Jack London Square Amtrak station) are both long term projects.

I wanted something I could do quickly, without a lot of research, and I've got a loop of Kato track that I've had for over a decade (maybe its collectible now... its in the original box, unopened). Instead of the usual Xmas tree loop, I thought it would be fun to do a tiny loop around the Jack'o'lantern for Halloween. (If I start now, I can probably have it running by October).

My thoughts are to make the whole thing sort of like a haunted house, but instead a ghost-train ride. Creepy bare trees, smoldering (LED) fires, a casket factory (even a ghost train needs an industry), pumpkin patch, dark caves, a rickety wooden bridge, zombies... you get the idea. It will give me a chance to try a bunch of things without worrying about it being "prototype".

Oh, and I'm thinking about trying to make the whole thing revolve slowly, so the moving train stays in the same position relative to the viewer, but the scenery moves. (I've seen pictures of Xmas tree layouts that do this, but I don't know how hard it is.)

So, any ideas and suggestions for rolling stock, power, accessories, or scenery details?

 

Micro-Trains has a Haunted Hamlet set for use with their "Table Top N Track" circle of track which is where I would start for inspiration. Then hit up the Woodland Scenics website to see what might be available with regards to scenic materials. I'd build trees with armatures but no leaves except for some of that creepy-hangy stuff and lots of overgrown grass. Maybe check with Walthers to see who makes an electronic campfire and what companies make dilapidated buildings. (Or just dilapidate a regular building model yourself.) Maybe some kind of mist generator, too.

Lowes sells a premade 24" diameter circle of unfinish wood (for tabletops). The problem you would face is getting the power to the train while the layout is turning lazy susan style. You could just make the train battery powered and then change the speed of the rotation of the table to match.

Sounds like a fun project.

Andy
Tetsu Uma

 

Just run BNSF power and make sure you have that MTL jack o'lantern graffiti covered hopper

 

Paint up a couple of cars in glow-in-the-dark paint.

Have a ghost for an engineer and/or conductor.

Make a large black "thing" with red LED eyes inside a stock car.

IRS audit agent.

 

Those look hauntingly like FP-7's or possibly 9's. One of our keener ESPEE visual recognition experts will be able to lock-on to which one's they are and verify this for us.

fatalxsunrider43

 

Or Milwaukee Road black & orange. If they made a loco outta a pumpkin, pretty sure it would be on the MR.



Or all-black NS would be cool too.

 

Using a lazy susan mechanism you might be able to just make the back of the layout higher than the front( so the lazy ssusan is tilted). So the weight of train moving causes it to turn.

 

Thanks everybody, these are all great suggestions!
I was originally thinking "steam era" but a quick look at the available locos in my local shop (Just Trains in Concord) turned up only two steamers. One too short and the other too expensive. (They told me that they didn't like the jerky operation of most of the steam era machines available.) I might look for a economy Bachman train set and use it. Since everything will be repainted anyway, I don't really care what markings are on it, and the jerky motion might be better for a ghost train anyway.

I'm thinking the smoke machine can go inside the pumpkin. I really like the idea of tilting the lazy susan but i don't know if the weight of a 5-car train would be enough to keep it oriented. I think there must be a small motor available I can wire up to the power pack.

Glow-in-the-dark or black-light-reactive could be really cool. The glowing beast eyes in the stock car is a YES!

I wonder if I can use smoke tablets inside of a GP unit to make it look like the engine is on fire? (smoke coming out of the inside.)

 

Model power makes/made a coffin company box car. I can't find a link. There are also am few bev bel halloween cars available on the bay. I also have the mtl hallowed Pullman set. All might work.

 

Last year, Micro-Trains made a really nice Halloween set. Here is a pic.

 

THe weight of the train would work if your careful to keep the weight even all the way round. Also the older Life Like E8 were HEAVY, One of those and some nicely weighted cars should work great.

Those older E8's could pull about 25 cars each easily--wish I still had some.

 

I'd go with NS. All black, plus they've historically been a lot more laissez-faire on maintenance than the other eastern roads, so any haunted stories ("and when there's a full moon out, the ghost of engineer jim atkins of the old '93 still haunts teenagers in podunkadunk hollow", etc) become that much more plausible.

 

long time ago I once built a Halloween NTRAK module...



...the pumpkin has had two faces, a friendly one and a scary one and was powered with a Walthers turntable motor

 

Steve, that Ntrak module is great. I was thinking maybe I could use a turntable motor to move the whole thing. I knew I couldn't be the first person with a halloween themed display.

Dave, thanks for the pic of the 2010 Halloween set. Its a little too pricey for me (plus, a little too slick) but its great to see all the different ways one can go with the theme.

Mudkip - you bring up some interesting ideas for prototype realism. I hadn't even considered that direction.

Kermat - I'm just going to have to build it and try it out. Maybe I can combine ideas and have the base spinning just a bit slower than the train, so the train appears to move really slowly, even though everything is spinning. That might make it even spookier. I guess it depends on how much the pumpkin weighs.

everybody else -- keep the ideas coming!

 

I too have been working on a holiday layout. This was just a test track. I decided to make it work under the x-mas tree and fit the Mirco Seasons Haunted Hamlet base as well. I have the base and the entire collection. The tree base is a little larger than the haunted hamlet base so I know it will work fine.

I made a plug that fits in place of either base when I just want to run a train off season. This little setup is about 2.5' x 4' and an ongoing project.

 

This is as close as I have come to a Halloween Themed layout. My very own Orson Wells radio broadcast “War of the Worlds” scene.







I also have a “Buffy fighting a demon scene” on my layout but I don’t currently have any pics of that.

 

I am up in Berkeley and I'm sure I have a lot of extra "trainset" rolling stock (and some locos!) that you could have, to try your hacking & painting skills at.... let me know if you'd like to meet for coffee and brainstorm a bit! Sounds like a fun project.... cheers!

-Brian